Tech news, Web apps and Coding bits

Posts Tagged ‘iPhone’

Smartphones are always running low on battery, and iPhone is definitely one of them. The release of iOS 5 has brought fantastic OS/app improvements, however the battery life has been negatively affected. Here are 5 tips that actually work, i.e. save precious battery time for your iPhone 3GS/4/4S handset.

1. Manage Notifications

One of the most important new iOS 5 features is the Notification Screen. Enabling Notifications is a must for the iOS experience, however you should manage the applications that make use of it. Go to Settings -> Notifications and select the apps that you really want to be sending Notifications, leave out all others.

2. Manage Location Services

Similarly to the Notifications logic, manage the applications that you want to be accessing the Location Services (GPS). Go to Settings -> Location Services and turn off Location where is unnecessary.

3. Disable Bluetooth

In case that you don’t need the Bluetooth feature, just turn it off. Go to Settings -> General -> Bluetooth and turn if off.

4. Disable Local Weather

The Weather app on iOS 5 is improved, featuring a handy Weather Widget for the Notifications screen. By default the Weather Widget is looking up via GPS the current location and displays accordingly the weather data. If you are not constantly on the road or just not interested you will save some battery by turning it off. Go to the Weather app -> press “i” on the lower right corner -> turn off Local Weather option.

5. The Time Zone option

iOS 5 has a time zone option, which when I turned it off had a positive impact on the battery life. It’s quite hidden, so make a note of this post in case you need to find it again for your – or a friend’s – device. Go to Settings -> Location Services -> scroll all the way to the bottom -> System Services -> turn off “Setting Time Zone”. You can also experiment with some other options on that screen, please leave a comment if they do make a difference!

There are also some other more drastic measures that will save you battery, however they are ruining the iOS 5 experience. Like for example disabling iCloud or completely disable Notifications, but as a power user I am against them.

Dev-Team has just released ultrasn0w, which unlocks iPhone OS 3.0 on iPhone 3G devices.

1. Ensure you have upgraded to iPhone OS 3.0
2. Jailbreak your iPhone 3G using redsn0w or PwnageTool (this will also install Cydia/Icy)
3. Run Cydia or Icy
4. Please add the repo repo666.ultrasn0w.com to Cydia or Icy. That last “o” is actually the number zero “0”! If you use the letter “o” you’ll get an error.
5. Search for ‘ultrasn0w’ in cydia or icy and install ultrasn0w
6. Reboot your iPhone 3G
7. T-Mobile USA users should disable 3G before using ultrasn0w
8. Enjoy

On April 14 Apple released iPhone OS 3.0 beta 3 build 7A280f to developers. You know the drill! With each update comes a new jailbreak. Even though iPhone OS 3.0 is still in beta, developers still want to keep the jailbreak. Especially developers that develop for the jailbroken app store. As of this post, QuickPWN 3.0 Beta 3 has been released! Remember, this is an “unofficial release” as it is not created by the iPhone Dev Team.